comScore Expects ExtendedTV Metric to Be Public by Year-end

comScore expects a public release of its ExtendedTV measurement product later this year.

Speaking to investors during an update call Friday morning, comScore CEO Gian Fulgoni described ExtendedTV as a TV-centric product that measures TV content that’s consumed across a variety of viewing types—linear, time-shifted and digital.

“ExtendedTV really lives up to its name because it allows the content owners and advertisers to see how TV programming extends across platforms and screens and to truly understand the unduplicated reach of individual television shows, or any combination, no matter whether the content was viewed via traditional legacy means of via digital,” Fulgoni said.

ExtendedTV has been in a private preview release with a select group of clients since the second quarter of 2016.

Fulgoni said it expects to launch a new ExtendedTV charter program. "Then later this year, we expect to move extended TV out of private release and into a public release to coincide with the release of our new data processing platform,” he said.

comScore was expected to be a serious competitor to media measurement leader Nielsen after agreeing to acquire Rentrak in 2015.

But the company has been operating under a financial cloud since last February, when an investigation was launched into the way it handled certain non-monetary transactions. Since then, the company has decided to re-audit and restate its earnings for 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.

comScore has not reported financial results since then and, as a result, has been delisted by Nasdaq.

Nielsen has had its own delay syndicating its Total Content Ratings product and media buyer GroupM—owned by comScore stockholder WPP—is pushing another metric, unified C7, to be used for buying and selling TV ad time.

comScore said it expects the re-audit to be completed by this summer and that it will apply to be listed again at that point. The re-audit process cost comScore $29 million in the second-half of 2016.

In its update, comScore said it had cash flow of 39 million in 2016, down sharply form 2015. The company said that its revenue was flat for 2015, but that it continued to invest in its products.

“We expect to see revenue growth in 2017,” CFO David Chemerow said.

During the update call, Fulgoni outlined the steps the company planned to make to resume its growth.

“We have tremendous assets and talent at comScore and in the time that I’ve spent since I returned to day-to-day operations as CEO last August, I’ve seen substantial improvement in our products and a sharpening of our sales and marketing approach to clients in the marketplace. And we will continue to do that and enhance it,” Fulgoni said.

“Our focus on the cross platform opportunity ahead of us is unwavering. We believe we are well position to benefit from really profound shifts that have already begun and will continue to occur in the media and advertising landscape,” he said

But Fulgoni noted that growth of comScore advertising measurement products, notably its Validated Campaign Essentials, vCE, were disappointing. He said he hoped to restore growth in that area as well.

Another area where improvement was needed was in mobile measurement. “We made progress,” he said. “We want to speed that up. I’m not happy with what we’ve been able to achieve and we are redoubling our efforts.”

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.